Blak indulges in a little anarchy

From European Voice's Entre-Nous column

7/23/03, 5:00 PM CET

Updated 4/23/14, 8:26 PM CET

You can always tell the summer break is not too far away when MEPs arrive at high-level political talks in T-shirts. The difference last week, though, is that the deputies were already on holiday while the rest of us were slaving away.

Still, quite a few returned for the recent emergency meeting in the European Parliament on theEurostat fraud scandal.

Many looked like they were dressed for the beach – which turned out to be appropriate, given that the temperature rose to sweltering levels as European Commissioners Neil Kinnock and Pedro Solbes got a grilling.

The prize for most intriguing apparel went to Danish left-winger Freddy Blak, whose shirt advertised Christiania, an anarchist commune in Copenhagen.

Even though many of his colleagues became agitated at the meeting, our Fred was as calm as one of the quarter’s residents after a relaxing spliff.

In his mellifluous Nordic tones, Blak recommended that Solbes should consider stepping down for not taking action over the allegations of wrongdoing earlier.

“That’s something you can mull over during your summer holidays,” he coolly remarked.

There is something splendidly parochial about the state-aid investigation launched last week by the European Commission’s competition department into JC Decaux, a French advertising company. The question …